α. 1800s nube, 1800s nubie, 1900s– newby, 1900s– nibby, 1900s– nooby, 1900s– nubi, 1900s– nuby.
β. 1800s– nubia.
nubian.
/ˈnjuːbɪə/, U.S. /ˈn(j)ubiə/ U.S. Now historical.
A soft fleecy scarf for the head and neck, usually worn by women.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > neck-wear > [noun] > clothing for neck and other parts > neck and head or face
muffler1536
muffle1539
nubia1852
Balaclava helmet1881
α.
β. 1854 J. E. Cooke Leather Stocking & Silk iii. xviii. 335 Caroline's merry face and dancing eyes were already half buried in a huge ‘nubia’.1864 Hist. North-Western Soldiers' Fair, Chicago 126 [Donations include] 1 elegant worsted nubia [etc.].1894 New Eng. Mag. Feb. 754/2 She went into the bedroom and, putting on her shawl and ‘nubia’, slipped out, unperceived, by the side door.1908 Z. Gale Friendship Village 234 Her bare shoulders [were] wound in the rosy ‘nubia’ that had been her mother's.1977 Greenfield Recorder (Mass.) 5 Mar. 8 The 1870's or 80's women had long, rather narrow soft scarves..called ‘nubias’.1852 S. Clappe Let. 5 July in C. I. Wheat Shirley Lett. (1949) xviii. 157 Her wealth of floating curls turbaned in a snowy nubie, and her white dress set off by a crimson scarf.
1856 Harper's Mag. Sept. 448/2 The lake was entirely hidden by a thick coverlet of white mist, which lay upon its surface almost as palpable as if it had been..an extensive worsted nube.
1904 E. Glasgow Deliverance 29 The same evening that I got this pink crochetted [sic] nuby.
1968 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1996) III. 831/1 Nooby, head scarf.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1852